Dark Souls 3 has become another backwards compatible game to receive a frame-rate boost on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S for increased performance.
According to a technical analysis by Digital Foundry earlier today, Dark Souls 3 now pumps stable 60 frames per second on the new Xbox Series consoles compared to the rocky 30 frames per second on Xbox One.
There is however a catch. The game still runs on its original 900p resolution. The cap reportedly falls on the backs of developer FromSoftware because it “never went back to the Xbox One version of Dark Souls 3 to add Xbox One X support.”
30 frames per second at 900p resolution has hence been the most the game can achieve on Xbox consoles since its launch five years back.
While the impress FPS Boost from Microsoft has allowed the game to deliver “nigh-on flawless performance” on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, increasing the native resolution is a no-no without the involvement of FromSoftware.
In comparison, Dark Souls 3 was updated on PlayStation 4 Pro shortly after release to remove the 30 frames-per-second cap. The game hence achieved not only 60 frames per second on PlayStation 5 through backwards compatibility but at 1080p resolution to go.
Taking to Twitter earlier today, Xbox director of program management Jason Ronald stated that Dark Souls 3 “required a brand new technique” to enable 60 frames per second on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S through the FPS Boost initiative. He however did not clarify what that special technique was.
We heard you! The team is thrilled to bring FPS Boost to Dark Souls 3. This required a brand new technique, unique to Dark Souls 3, to enable 60 FPS on Xbox Series X|S.
Huge thank you to our partners at FROM Software and Bandai Namco for their partnership and support. https://t.co/uI9J8Hv8hK
— Jason Ronald (@jronald) July 8, 2021
Elsewhere, FromSoftware has no current plans for Dark Souls 4 but will be releasing Elden Ring in the near future which is meant to be an open-world Dark Souls game.
